Vitalik Buterin Donates $760,000 to Boost Privacy in Messaging Apps

He emphasized that the next key goals are enabling account setup without needing approval and protecting metadata.

To support these efforts, he donated 128 ETH to each of two decentralized messaging platforms, Session and SimpleX Chat.

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Session is built to remove identifiers and metadata used by standard messaging services, such as phone numbers and central servers. SimpleX Chat similarly avoids phone number usage and does not assign obvious user IDs.

The donation, valued at around $760,000, follows Buterin's pattern of supporting initiatives aligned with Ethereum's ideals.

His backing comes at a time when regulatory efforts, such as the EU's Chat Control proposal, have raised concerns over the future of private messaging.

Both platforms still face hurdles in delivering a seamless user experience and strong security. According to Buterin, effective protection of metadata demands decentralization, especially when users expect to access messages across multiple devices.

Buterin also pointed out additional technical challenges: ensuring resistance to Sybil attacks and denial‑of‑service issues, both in routing networks and on user devices, without depending on phone numbers. He added:

These problems need more eyes on them. I wish all teams working on these important problems best of luck.

On October 31, Elon Musk announced a new messaging service called X Chat. How does it work? Read the full story.